"Informa" drama: Episode eight recap

 

 Air Dates: January 19th until March 24th on Kansai TV, Thursday nights at 12:25 am

 Subs were done by Magicstar at NYAA, episodes are ~24 minutes in length. This drama is based upon a novel by Garyu Okita that came out on December 5, 2022 so not a long wait until it became a show, it will also be a manga.

Main Cast: Sure there will be some updating as we go along but it appears after two episodes the top two characters will easily have the most screen time. Its nice to see Megumi whose role is a medium sized one yet important. She was a fave actress of mine for a while and was also a popular gravure model back in the 2000's, she's now 41 in age but still looks terrific to me. Hopefully won't have to add any more names to this list, it's only a 25 minute show but what a large cast.

Kenta Kiritani as Keijiro Kihara.... The 'Informa' in the series which is the Japanese word for informant. Which is what Keijiro is and he has his hands in so many shady activities involving celebs, politicians and criminals. There was a sordid affair five years ago that forced Keijiro to leave Tokyo but he's returned for good in the first episode.

Reo Sano as Kanji Mishima.... Young reporter for the Weekly Times newspaper, Kanji's wish was to have beefier stories and he may come to regret that wish!

Megumi as Asuka Nagasawa.... Editor of the Weekly Times newspaper which is a tabloid mainly reporting on celeb scandals and such. But Asuka does have a background in hard news and it was her who told Kanji to work with Keijiro aka the Informa.

Yasushi Fuchikami as Kyosuke Kawamura.... We didn't meet him until the second episode. Keijiro's 'younger brother' but just in the Yakuza sense of being brothers. The two are very close and Kawamura is the leader of the Mugurama group. At the end of the sixth episode Kawamura was shot to death by Saeki. 

Go Morita as Saeki.... What a ruthless man who is a contract killer, supposedly from overseas but he is a Japanese man. Though very ruthless Saeki is also quite intelligent and careful which is why he's been a killer for so long.

Toru Hakozaki.... Older reporter for the Weekly Times.

Kana Kita as Nana.... Works at a hostess club and has known Keijiro for many years. She has a five year daughter and is the father Kawamura? No, it was revealed in episode five who the real father was Nana's husband Ainosuke however he was shot to death five years ago just before the birth of his child.

Ryo Tajima as Okabayashi.... A member of Saeki's gang and appears to be the brains of the team though can be brutal when it's needed.

Wataru Ichinose as Kim.... Also a member of Saeki's gang who is their 'heavyweight'. Kim is a Korean but was born in Japan, Tokyo's Korean town.

Kazuya Takahashi as Katsuji Maruyama.... Detective with the Metro Police and their organized crime division, he has a long history with Keijiro.

Mototaka Mishimura as Mizukoshi.... Maruyama's partner. Not much was seen of him until the seventh show but he appears to be a mole for the man employing Saeki. 

  

Previous recaps

Episode one .... Episode two .... Episode three .... Episode four

 Episode five .... Episode six

 

 The last episode was quite good though not as intense as the previous shows nor was there as much action. Plenty of that in this show as it ended off with about an eight minute fight scene. This episode began off with a brief flashback from about three years ago, those are the top two screenshots. This whole story has revolved around a corrupt urban development project and in those screenshots the main developer Ishigami was celebrating with his top aides. While the party was going on someone had uploaded a scandalous story about Ishigami to a news site, what the story contained is unknown for now. The guests at the celebration all began to ignore Ishigamai and those top three aides even snockered at the man when he passed by in his wheelchair. Those three were the prey in current times for Saeki and his mates to eliminate, two have been taken care off. What's also unknown is if any of those three had anything to do with that scandalous story being exposed.

 But the man in the top and third screenshots who is the leader of a huge Yakuza clan has still not been killed, his name is Takizawa. He easily could have been killed in the third episode but our hero and the 'Informa' Keijiro was able to protect this gangster. That is up until the seventh episode when Saeki's gang finally nabbed Takizawa, thought he was dead by now but as you can see in the third screenshot he's just being held as a prisoner. The reason that Takizawa was finally nabbed is because there was a mole working at the Tokyo police station. His name was Mizukoshi and he's the one who did capture Takizawa, Mizukoshi was the partner of the man in the second to last screenshot. His name is Maruyama who had been working on this case involving the two killed by Saeki. Maruyama delved too deep into the secrets of the corrupt Tokyo police and has been demoted, surprised he wasn't killed!

 That was the last we saw of Maruyama but being so close to Keijiro think he will be there in the end when Saeki and his gang are finally brought to justice.... or probably worse! Meanwhile Keijiro has been working trying to discover where Takizawa has been taken to and is he still alive? In two screenshots above Keijiro is talking with a Police OB from the Kanagawa Prefectural office though this is taking place in Tokyo. He has a video of this man Hareda making an offer to the hostess Nana to spend the night with him, all a set up by Keijiro. He wants some help from Hareda in the form of officers backing Keijiro's gang when they raid the location Takizawa is at but Hareda would not be blackmailed and refused to help Keijiro. But Hareda did give Keijiro some key info such as that Saeki and his gang are working with the Chinese Mafia group Genku, they're the troops who have helped out Saeki in previous encounters.

 Through a little more digging Keijiro has discovered where Takizawa is, a building in the Chinese section of Tokyo that's half a club and the other half an abandoned warehouse. Where Keijiro got this info from was a secret as he wouldn't reveal it to the reporter Kanji or anyone else. Now that Takizawa is gone the command of the Yakuza clan has fallen to his second in command who is Aida, he's in two of the screenshots above. This clan wants to avenge their leader being taken hostage, so don't the troops from Kawamura's gang who want revenge for their leader's murder. Though the two group are foes they agreed to put aside their differences to bring down Saeki and the man who hired him. Aida is a hothead who has no patience, once he learned about this club he brought his gang there which infuriated Keijiro who wanted to wait a bit before attacking. Outside of the club watching Aida enter was Shigeo who has now assumed the leadership of Kawamura's gang. He called Keijiro with the news of Aida entering the building with his goons, soon so didn't Shigeo and what a final battle took place in this show.

 This episode was a little less than 24 minutes in length, the final eight minutes was one long scene and most of it appeared to be shot in one continuous take. By now Aida's boss Takizawa has been burnt alive but unlike the other two burnings he wasn't released into a public area. Aida may have been no match when he squared off against Keijiro but he is a tough man who must have taken down a dozen of these Chinese Mafia thugs, so didn't the troops from Kawamura's old gang. Arriving during this massive melee was Keijiro, with him was the reporter Kanji who was filming as much as he could. Keijiro finally had a bit of revenge for his old mate Kawamura as he faced off against Saeki's top fighter Kim. Didn't think anyone could take this large goon down but Keijiro did who at the time was just so crazed, Kim was beaten to death and then an odd incident took place.

 The Chinese Mafia men threw down their weapons, all had baseball bats or clubs, and said they had been taken for fools! Not sure what exactly they were talking about but it seems they hadn't got paid by Saeki or his boss Ishigami and they thought was this whole battle staged? They all took off in a flurry and so didn't Saeki's other goons but not before giving Kanji a bit of a beating for filming them. Keijiro said to let everyone go and as you can see in the second to last screenshot he said the real game is about to begin! The final screenshot is off when the credits were rolling, back at the Weekly Times tabloid office a reporter was doing some digging in to Ishigami's past for Kanji. That above screenshot was in a file and it shows that Keijiro grew up in an orphanage, does it also mean he may have some connections to this evil man Ishigami? That we'll be learning about in the last two episodes and will have the recaps for them in two weeks, after a slowish seventh show this one was so packed with action!